Tuesday, June 18, 2013

“Life Begins Here"

Are North Korea and Cuba the only countries in the world which have experienced no penetration by Coke and heard no slogans like 2011’s “Life begins here?" Surely, there are still a few other select
enclaves. The plot of The Gods Must Be Crazyhinges on the conceit of a Coke
bottle falling from an airplane and fracturing the insular world of a tribe in
Botswana. Since 1980 when the film was made, the world has changed even more. So while there still might not be franchises in certain select places, it’s more likely the Coke
bottle would be recognizable even the most isolated and undeveloped parts of the planet. The Russians lost the cold war and America
can no longer be called imperial, but when you think of it, the Coca Cola
company has really done what no other super power, including the Romans or the
Turks ever succeeded in doing, which is to conquer the world. Caesar and Suleiman the Magnificent notwithstanding, one would be hard put to doubt the hegemony of Coke on
the world stage. We talk of the l000 years of Rome, but will Coke ever die?
Coke and especially Diet Coke have their enemies, but they tend to be pacific
types who are more interested in turning swords into ploughshares. Yes, there
is Pepsi, but that’s one competitor who only stokes the fires of the leader. If
Coke ever runs into trouble, Pepsi emptor! Jared Diamond has made an industry
out of the study of the Collapse of civilizations, but he should consider a
study of the greatest success story of all time, a product which is so
ubiquitous that it’s name is synonymous with civilization.

About Me

Francis Levy's debut novel, Erotomania: A Romance, was released in August 2008 by Two Dollar Radio.
His short stories, criticism, humor, and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Village Voice, The East Hampton Star, The Quarterly, Penthouse, Architectural Digest, TV Guide, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and other publications. One of his Voice humor pieces was anthologized in The Big Book of New American Humor (HarperCollins). He is presently the Co-Director of The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination (philoctetes.org), where he supervises roundtable discussions on topics as varied as “The Psychology of the Modern Nation State” and “Modern Traffic Theory, Behavior, and Imagination”.